Beloved Jinchuuriki
by Higanbana.4
Summary: Konohagakure as it would be, had the Third not implemented the law forbidding citizens to speak of the Kyuubi. Team Seven: one jounin sensei, two top graduates, one deadlast. Sakura-centric.
1. Prologue

A/N: This is my first foray into the fandom of Naruto. I'm nervous, and freaking out. I've been wanting to contribute to this fandom for a long time, and though I'll never be satisfied with my writing as it is now, so this is it.

Disclaimer: Do not own NARUTO. Will never own. Plot is mine.

_Prologue_

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_Little Haruno Sakura, the orphan, the friendless, the one no-one wanted to be associated with. That was who I was. That is who I am._

The shove connected with force, and the girl's center of gravity wobbled alarmingly as she made no effort to balance. She lets herself fall to her bottom in a tangle of thin, dirt-smudged limbs. Sakura flung her arms over her face. A last, mute protest.

"Stupid forehead girl! Who even has a forehead that big?" Ami giggled mockingly, flanked by two other small girls all looking down at the target of her scorn. "A monster! No boy would ever like you, with a forehead like that!"

The girl in question is smaller than her young assailants, with a delicate, almost bony frame covered by a stained dress whose colour was indistinguishable under the dirt.

Her only significant features are a pair of grass-green eyes. They are hidden beneath dull pink bangs that only half succeed in covering her broad forehead. (The girl's forehead was, admittedly, on the large side.)

She is dirty, frail, and sobbing rather loudly.

Her name is Haruno Sakura.

She lifts her head up.

A flash of silvery colour catches the corner of her eye. Sakura turns to see a blond-haired girl with laughing blue eyes race past, yelling out to the cloud of children behind her. "Come on! I heard that Kiba-kun challenged Sasuke-kun to a fight! Hurry, or we'll miss it!"

For a splinter of time, green and blue connect.

A little scrap of hope stirs feebly in Sakura's chest, only to be bluntly extinguished as Ami calls back "Wait! I wanna see Sasuke-kun in action too!" and gives the fallen girl a last, half-hearted kick before running off after the other children.

The children are shrieking with glee, intent on the impending spectacle as they trail behind the blond girl like the tail of a comet. Sakura sighed.

Because if there ever was a girl who could be a comet, Yamanaka Ino would be her. Ino was pretty, charming and smart.

She was everything Sakura had ever wanted to be.

Everybody liked Ino, the other girls, the adults, even the boys! Even Sakura had, a little bit. Nobody liked Sakura. No-one paid her any notice, except for Ami and the others. But that kind of attention Sakura didn't want.

But the best part, the most important thing of all. Ino was a jinchuuriki. The container of the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox.

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A/N: Chapter 1 is short because of the ending. I would really appreciate any feedback you could give me. Thanks.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

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_Shut up! I'm not! I don't want to hear it. Please… _

_stop._

When it had first started, she had gone to Fuji-san. The heavyset woman had hugged her, encasing her in the stale scent of old sweat before brushing her complaints off with a casual wave of the hand.

Sakura didn't blame the caretaker. Much.

Fuji-san had a hectic schedule as the head matron, bustling forcefully from place to place everyday so to make sure the orphanage did not spiral into complete madness.

Sakura rose unsteadily, leaning against the trunk of the tree she had dropped under. She brushed her knees off, eyes tearing a little as dust got into her scrapes.

The girl considered her options. She didn't want to return to the dismal, concrete building where she lived, day in, day out.

The walls were painted in bright primary colours, perhaps an engineer's sad attempt to bring an air of brightness and joy to the sorry structure. In the orphanage, the tatami mats were thin and often filthy, the reeds underfoot always needed cleaning. The inside was always stuffy and had a faint underlying scent of urine and spilt food.

Sakura _really _didn't want to go back. Rika, who slept next to her always wet the bed.

The food was flavorless, but filling while the air constantly reverberated with the screams and cries of younger children. Sakura hated it, but she had nowhere else to go. She may have been a child, but she was far from stupid.

Sakura knew that she would never be taken away to live with new parents. She was too old and too odd, always in a corner with herself. She did not understand it, the sense of unease she felt when she was in the center of a room. Fuji-san and the other workers had written it off as a strange quirk. But strangeness was unforgivable and Sakura had always been a quiet child. The couples who came to adopt skittered over her with unseeing eyes.

The orphanage was all she had ever known. So she turned, feet setting a reluctant course towards that dreaded place. Her lip quivered, face already red and splotchy from tears.

Sakura was more than halfway there, and hurrying because the sun was going down and she didn't want to miss dinner, no matter how bland it was. She'd realized that she had sat under that tree for far too long. The girl suddenly tripped to a stop as a look of contemplation stole over her face.

There might be one way.

A few weeks ago, she had overheard a couple of boys at the playground talking. She didn't know their names, and had kept her head down because they weren't trying to drive her away. Sakura's ears had pricked up at one word. _Shinobi_. She thought back to that conversation.

"_No way! Really?"_

"_Uh-huh, 'kaa-chan said so. She said it was, uh, 'lee-gul' for kids to live by themselves if they go to Ninja Academy."_

"_I don't believe you."_

"_Are you calling my kaa-chan a liar?"_

"_No! Not like that! Besides, even if it's true there's no way your kaa-chan and tou-chan would let you…"_

"_Yeah… but it's not like yours would too!"_

The conversation quickly dissolved into a small tussle, and Sakura had lost interest.

She grinned now, clutching onto the idea.

Hmm… if she wanted to enter the Academy, she figured that she would have to ask to a ninja. She didn't know anything about enrolling.

Sakura quickly scanned the streets for shinobi, turning around in a full circle. She craned her head to look at the tall grown-ups, but she only succeeded in making her neck sore. Sakura stomped on the ground with her tiny foot in frustration. She couldn't see any ninja about. Had all the ninja in Konohagakure vanished today?

But there was one place that Sakura knew definitely had ninja in it… the Hokage Tower. It was unmistakable, an effigy of skilled woodworking, rising high above the muddle of buildings in the village. The tower was framed by the gargantuan stone faces that loomed down from the cliff face. Sakura bit her lip, worried. Would hokage-sama even have time to see her? She was only a girl, and if someone like Fuji-san didn't have the time, how could the hokage? He was really, really important. The protector of the village!

An image of the orphanage floated across her mind, and Sakura squared her shoulders. Her eyes gained a determined glint. Even if hokage-sama was too busy, she had to try. Slight as it was, Sakura thought, it was her only chance.

And with that, the petal-haired girl set off at a run towards the tower beacon, amidst the gathering darkness.

**A/N:** I'm afraid this story will progress slowly. I've written very few action sequences in my life, and I'm terribly rusty at writing in general. Can't promise anything, but I'll do my best to continue this story. Constructive criticism is welcomed.


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